One of the biggest challenges facing the RFID supply chain is choosing the right type of tag and then deciding where it should be placed on the product’s packaging. Incorrectly placed tags can lead to poor reading results and could mean failure to meet mandated compliance standards.

This is where CAPE Systems, with its tag locator software, hopes to make a difference. The New Jersey-based company is a provider of software technology for packaging design, RFID asset tracking, pallet optimization, inventory and warehouse management, supply chain execution and order fulfillment. Last month, it introduced its RFID Tag Locator software designed for RFID tag placement analysis and pallet-reading optimization. ▸

Taking it step-by-step means small upfront cost at St. Louis facility

By Victoria Forlini

Dipping RFID tags in liquid nitrogen may not be standard operating procedure for most projects, but Boeing IDS believes a sub-zero experiment may help reduce spoilage and track containers in their plant here. ▸

“Increasingly, attention is turning to the software that enables RFID data use within the enterprise. New initiatives are flying thick and fast. ABI Research believes that this space is primed for a shakeout in the coming six to nine months. There will be rollups, acquisitions and consolidation, as the need for more focused RFID-related software and applications grows.”

“Paragon Data Systems, the premier provider of barcode, RFID, and data collection solutions, announces its Forklift Label Printing Solution. Used in conjunction with Zebra’s QL 420 thermal mobile printer, the forklift label printing solution is ideal for use in distribution, shipping and receiving, and picking operations that currently use barcodes.”

“EPCglobal’s electronic product code (EPC) tag data standard has been revised to incorporate the Defense Department’s Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code and the Department of Defense Activity Address Code (DODAAC), which are used by DOD suppliers to identify shipments. The department’s 60,000 suppliers can use either these DOD tag data constructs or the EPC tag data construct to comply with the agency’s request to apply RFID tags on all shipments to the military by January 2007. ”

The following is an excerpt of RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy. This chapter is written by EPC pioneer Sanjay Sarma¹.

Although the concept of radio frequency identification (RFID) is not new, the term RFID has been in use for only a couple of decades.² In the 1980s and 1990s, long after the early use of RFID during World War II, innovations in RF circuitry enabled passive RFID tags (tags without batteries, which scavenge power from the reader’s field) to provide enough range to become viable. Today, RFID tags are seemingly everywhere: in toll passes, card-keys, automobile keys, payment systems (like the Mobil Speedpass system), and animal identification.

What has changed is the emergence of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) system, which is a suite of standards and technologies that weaves basic RFID into a standardized scheme for keeping track of material in the supply chain. The EPC was created at MIT by a few researchers involved in a research project called the Distributed Intelligent Systems Center (DISC). Later, this research effort morphed to fulfill a growing need in the retail supply chain and became the Auto-ID Center. This chapter presents a brief history of the Auto-ID Center, talking mostly about the technology, the industry, and the adoption of the EPC system.

My own first, forgettable, brush with RFID occurred in the early 1990s when I was a graduate student at Berkeley. At that time, I was interested in identifying and locating work-pieces for manufacturing automation. I had looked at RFID as a possible positioning device in automation and rejected it as being far too imprecise and expensive. Little did I realize then that our paths would cross again! ▸

“One program would generate code that would then be written to a general-purpose (off-the-shelf) chip used in an RFID tag. This code could add data storage capacity to the chip, for example, or add functionality related to how the chip in an active tag communicates with an attached sensor, and how it transmits that data to an RFID interrogator, says Mickle. The other program being developed would be used to design a tag’s chip from the ground up, thereby building any special functionality, as well as the required data storage capacity, right into the chip. ”